Tengu gets a sword

[Tengu]

Well, not quite.

I was at the car boot rummaging though the boxes of one of those sellers who has loads of diffferent things in boxes.

I found some items it wanted, and got them priced.

"and what about the paperknife?" I managed to conceal my grin.

"oh, you can have that"

and as you can imagine I was grinning like the cheshire cat who inherited the dairy all the way home.

So I am now a proud owner of a new shiv. Its NOT a paperknife; its a real kozuka (a little knife that goes with the sword; think of it as the samaurais penknife) with a nice hilt, signed and all.

Ill post pics when my hands stop shaking

 

[JohnC]

Lucky. well done.. Can you tell much about the maker, age etc.?

 

[Graham_S]

sweet. i picked up a lekku a couple of years ago the same way.

 

[Tengu]

Im going to see what I can do; I have gotten in contact with the To ken society.

Now `how` do I post pics?

 

[ggfh666]

How's the shakin?

 

[ozzy1977]

We need pictures

 

[Tengu]

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f272/Skylinec10/0340a8de.jpg

here you are

 

[JohnC]

Very nice. Once again a good find

 

[scruff]

Hmmm...nice find dude

Have you identified the smith? There seems to be three kanji on there.

It maybe pretty modern the style looks similar to one I've seen on a WW2 officers sword my friend has.

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/nihonto.htm - maybe a link on here that can help you.

 

[scruff]

Tengu,

I hope you don't mind but I've just taken the liberty of doing a little research for you. My initial thoughts about this being a 'modern' blade may be wrong. I could lie and tell you its completely worthless and to give it to me.....but I think you know better.

A close friend of mine is Japanese and works as a translator and teacher. Anyway she's just translated the Kanji for me....she couldn't believe it!! If its authentic then its very good news.

Here's a break down:

- The first kanji is the place name (where the smithy lived/ the blade was forged)

Seki or Mino-Seki (Near Nagoya, Modern day Gifu-ken)

Good news! Its a very famous part of Japanese for smithying.

- The second two kanji make up the name of the smith. Its worth saying that the second/ last kanji is difficult to read but is most likely "Shige".

This is extremly good news 'cos the first part of the name definatly reads "Kane"

So the smithy is more than likely "Kaneshige" - this is the point at which my Japanese friend asked if she could have it!

If its THE Kaneshige, this blade was probably forged around the end of the Kamakura period, around 1483. Kaneshige is a very famous smithy as I'm sure you know.

I'd suggest getting this checked out at the To-ken Society or take it down to the British Museum to be validated but it looks like extremely good news mate.

Thats one hell of a find for a Car boot!

:tongue-ti

 

[stovie]

I have very little idea what you are talking about, but it sounds really interesting. Late 15th C japanese smithing was at its height then I believe.

So if it is the real thing, will the blade be formed using the same technique as a standard sword blade?

 

[scruff]

well i'm no expert so i don't really know. it will probably have been made using the same steel (tame hagane) but not neccesarily folded.

it would not really have need to be anything so complex in construction....and i dare say that it would have been difficult to manfacture on such a small item.

i think the item itself is made up of the gokatana the blade and the kozuka which was just the handle for the later.

as an item it could serve a variety of purposes; from being an eating utensil to a projectile for forestalling a would-be attacker, giving you time to draw your sword.

 

[Tengu]

Scruff; bear in mind that it could be a non de plume or just something that the smith thought was cool to put down. (according to Robinsons seminal book on Japanese swords you cant always take signatures for granted.)

Irs hard to see if the blades folded or not (its certainly not folded like a sword! more like a ginsu knife)

I expect your friends WW2 officers sword is a real old one. A lot took their family blades into battle. (and the family are still looking to retrieve them. a collecting friend of mine traced a family a sword he had belonged to; and offered to return it. They told him to keep it but became good friends)

a made for WW2 sword would be stainless steel. (easy to see if you removed the hilt.)

but if the inscription is right....

 

[scruff]

Scruff; bear in mind that it could be a non de plume or just something that the smith thought was cool to put down. (according to Robinsons seminal book on Japanese swords you cant always take signatures for granted.)

Quite right thats why I recommended you got it checked out at the BRitish Museum etc mate.

I expect your friends WW2 officers sword is a real old one. A lot took their family blades into battle. (and the family are still looking to retrieve them. a collecting friend of mine traced a family a sword he had belonged to; and offered to return it. They told him to keep it but became good friends)

Nope its a lump of iron I think Its a high ranking officers sword but the family must have thought twice about taking an old sword into battle so they had one made. For its size its far too heavy. The fittings however, the style, reminded my of your kozuka.

Good luck with it all anyway...please, keep us informed.

 

[Tengu]

I will do. To Ken society not got back to me yet

 

[scruff]

Pity your not up north mate you could pay Mr Bottomley a visit at the armouries.